For the past two days, there has been nothing in my mailbox. This is a very strange occurrence since most days my mailbox seems to be filled with lots of junk mail. And with four sponsored children and eight correspondent children in our family, you can bet that we look forward to the days when a cream-colored envelope appears with a letter from one of our Compassion children who we consider to be part of our family.

Over the past year, on our Second Friday Letter Writing Club board on Pinterest, many letter writing ideas have been pinned on how to make wonderful paper items for our sponsored children that can be mailed. And quite a few of you are responsible for pinning some of these very creative paper projects and printables.

I always see questions from sponsors asking what is appropriate to send to their sponsored children. So this month, we want you to share with us what you are sending to your sponsored child.

To start the letter writing ideas off, here is what I mailed to my sponsored children last month:

We have been sponsoring Lina for almost four years now, so I sent her copies of all the photos we have received of her over the years. I also sent her a printable scripture page and a simple note, reminding her that God loves her and is always looking out for her.

Upload a photo of what you mail to your sponsored child this month and give a short explanation.

Use the hashtag #compassionletter in the description of your pin.

Share your photo with #compassionletter on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Google+. Sharing your creativity can inspire other sponsors like you to continue using their imaginations to foster their relationships with their correspondent children.

We look forward to seeing all of the creative ways you are sending love to your sponsored child this month!

I buy learning workbooks from costco, and tear them out and send them to my child in Africa. I put her name and number on each of them and send them 2 or 3 at a time with stickers. For a gift I often send Kieragami folded snowflakes and they are pre cut. she gets to unfold them when they arrive. I send a folded blank page from my postal stamp book with double sided tape 3 or 4 pieces to tape them onto a paper or the back of the drawing or color page. I also send step by step drawing ideas. I tell her she is smart, kind and the light of this world. I love her so much.

Hi Maxine! These are such great ideas, I love the folded snowflake idea for Christmas time! Thank you for sharing them and for blessing your girl in such a tangible way! Your words of encouragment and the thoughtful gifts you send, mean more than you may ever know! -Emily

We are sponsoring a young adult through the LDP. I love the ideas I’ve seen on the Pinterest board and in the blog, but they seem to target primarily younger children. Are there such collections especially for those who sponsor older teens and young adults? This could be wonderfully helpful.

Hi DDS! First of all, thank you so much for supporting your young leader! We currently don’t have a collection of ideas targeted specifically towards teens and adults but we appreciate your feedback because this helps us improve our pages. This is such great input and I agree that it would be helpful to have ideas geared towards older students in our program.

Because this is such a critical time in your child’s life and comes with a lot more responsibility and stress, you might send items that make day to day life a bit easier or help them to relax from their long day :). Maybe sending scrapbook pages and pictures to get their artistic juices flowing, or help them stay organized by giving an example of creating a day planner for themselves. When I was in college however, I found that I loved when my parent’s sent me care packages that brought me back to being a kid again, even just for a moment :). But never underestimate the power of your kind words and encouragement to your student in this time. They will absorb and embrace each word you write and that can give them the motivation they need to finish a class they are really struggling in! Thanks so much for all you’re doing!